Virtual experience has begun to play a significant role in the marketing and promotion for the tourism industry. This article demonstrates that the advertising effects of traditional brochures vs. virtual experience would be contingent on consumers’ cognitive preferences. The traditional use of brochures in advertising would be more effective for verbalizers, whereas the virtual experience mode would be more effective for visualizers. Under a hybrid of the two advertising modes, a recency effect was found indicating that the subsequent or more recently experienced advertising mode would generate a greater impact. Moreover, the recency effect of traditional brochures was more apparent for verbalizers, whereas the recency effect of virtual experience was more pronounced for visualizers. The findings provide insights into the contingent use of traditional brochures, the use of virtual experience, and the use of hybrid advertising.
Traditionally, advertising has been defined as a form of controlled communication that attempts to persuade consumers, using strategies and appeals, to buy or use a particular product or service (Defleur & Dennis, 1996). It is becoming abundantly clear that the media environment into which advertising is placed is changing, and because of this trend, the nature of advertising is changing as well. Many new channels of mass communication were developed during the latter part of the 20th century that exposed the public to an ever-increasing number of mediated messages (Fitzgerald, 1999; Lombard et al., 1997).
Tourism and leisure have become prevalent activities in modern life. With the rapid expansion of the tourism market, people have used multiple channels to gain travel information. People may have received tour information from relatives, friends, brochures, or travel agents in the past. However, through the progress of media technology in recent years, most consumers can now view the photos and read information about scenic spots through the Internet in order to experience the sights in advance (Klein, 1998). Traditionally, most tourism-oriented industries used brochures to promote travel-related products (Holloway & Plant, 1992; Yamamoto & Gill, 1999), but brochures can only supply short and limited introductions. Direct product experiences have consistently been shown to lead to stronger beliefs and attitudes than advertising (Marks & Kamins, 1988; Smith & Swinyard, 1988). More and more industries (e.g., hotels, exhibitions and travel destinations) now provide virtual experience, such as panoramic views, animation, and interactive photos, so that consumers can get a direct experience without actually being there. Clearly, virtual experience does more for the tourism industry than does just print information; virtual experience actually gives consumers the chance to get a feel of their travel destinations on the Internet. Therefore, the preferred medium for advertising scenic spots has gradually turned from the traditional brochure to virtual experience (Fang & Lie, 2006).
In principle, verbalizers tend to use fewer images, but rely mostly on verbal material, whereas visualizers tend to remember better from visual material and not from verbal material. The findings of the first study were in accordance with the predictions. The results also suggest that consumers who are verbalizers would more likely be affected by the ads with traditional brochure, whereas those who are visualizers would more likely be influenced by the ads with virtual experience.
In the second study, the results first indicated that the recency effect was more prominent than the primacy effect when hybrid advertising was employed. This finding was consistent with a classical study conducted by Insko (1964). Thus, when receivers were asked to rate their responses immediately after a hybrid presentation, the recency effect was more apparent. Furthermore, the second study also revealed that the advertising effect was greater for verbalizers when the subsequent advertising mode was traditional brochure, whereas the advertising effect was greater for visualizers when the subsequent advertising mode was virtual experience. Thus, it suggests that in hybrid advertising, the recency effect would depend on participants’ cognitive preferences. In the practice of contemporary marketing, potential tourists are likely to be subjected to both advertising modes. Future research may investigate the complementarity of the different modes of advertising.
